- Our greatest challenge as Christians is to change our thinking and thus change our behavior.
How we behave determines the quality of life we experience now as believers in the earth.
- Your victory in this life will follow your right decisions and your behavior.
- You can change defeat into victory by changing your behavior and you can change your behavior by changing your mind.
Your mind is the ceiling to the power of God that we are filled with and to the degree that our mind comes into agreement with our spirits, will release that power out of you to effect your life and reality.
- The supernatural power of God in you can never rise above the ceiling to which your mind comes in agreement with your spirit.
- We have no limitation in this life except what our mind sells us based on how we see our lives.
- Being a Christian is not about behavior modification!
Some think that renewing the mind is simply replacing the worldly value system that you have had and replacing it with God’s value system or removing old standards and replacing with new ones. Renewing does not mean learning.
Romans 12:1-2 | TPT (1) Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship. (2) Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.
The word “transformed” is the Greek word that we get the English word “metamorphosis”.
Metamorphosis – a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means.
- God is interested in something supernatural happening on the inside of us that changes us on the outside.
The Bible is very clear in teaching us that the way that we change is by changing the way that we think.
Other translations speak about the “renewing of the mind”.
So, if there are behaviors, habits, etc. that we have in our lives, then they can be changed or eliminated by changing the way that we think.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 | KJV For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (4) (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds😉 (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Three Levels of Thinking:
- Thoughts
- Imaginations
- Strongholds
The first level of our thinking starts with our thoughts.
- You determine the thoughts that you take or reject.
- You take a thought by saying it.
- You make thoughts obey by speaking God’s Word which is contrary to that thought.
Your thoughts do not consist of words; they consist of pictures or images.
The second level of our thinking is our imagination.
Imagination – (Dictionary) the forming of mental images of what is not actually present to the senses.
In other words, our imagination was given to us by God so that we could “see” things that have not yet happened in our lives.
- Your imagination is your ability to see with your heart what you can’t see with your eyes.
- Whether you know it or not, your imagination is dictating how your life goes.
Genesis 11:1,4-6 | AMPC (1) AND THE whole earth was of one language and of one accent and mode of expression. (4) And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower whose top reaches into the sky, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the whole earth. (5) And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. (6) And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them.
Why is this so very important?
In the Scriptures, when referring to a positive imagination, the word used is “hope”.
In his article called “The Power of Hope”, Andrew Wommack said,
“Hope is more powerful than people realize. Something the Lord shared with me that really made this truth come alive is that hope is a positive imagination.
Your imagination is like soil. Soil doesn’t care what kind of seed you plant in it; the moment it’s planted, the soil starts producing. It’s the same thing with your heart and your imagination. Your imagination will conceive something and automatically start making it come to pass, whether it’s positive or negative. It’s like your spiritual womb.”
- You get to choose whether your imagination is positive—which is hope—or negative, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- The imagination isn’t moral or immoral; it’s what you focus your attention on that determines whether it is good or bad.
Luke 21:26 NKJV men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth…
Isaiah 26:3 NKJV You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.
Hebrew word for “mind” can be translated “imagination.”
- You must stay in God’s Word and let it dominate you, or the unbelief of this world will extinguish your positive imagination.
How Do I Change the Picture?
Joshua 1:8 | NKJV (8) This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Psalms 2:1 | AMPC (1) WHY DO the nations assemble with commotion [uproar and confusion of voices], and why do the people imagine (meditate upon and devise) an empty scheme?
Psalms 1:1-2 NKJV (1) Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; (2) But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
- The way that you change your imagination is to meditate on or imagine God’s Word.
In his book Visioneering, Andy Stanley says, “Everybody ends up somewhere in life. You can end up somewhere on PURPOSE!”
Imagine your life being lived out as God’s Word states it.